What you think about and focus on most expands in your life. If you focus on the person you desire to become, you’ll become that person. If you think most about your negative habits, relationships and finances, they will all expand. This is why so many outcomes in our lives are self-fulfilling.

To stop this cycle, do these things:

1. Have a clear understanding of who and where you are currently (but don’t make it worse than it really is).

2. Begin focusing on the person you want to become.

3. Visualize how you would conduct your daily life if you were that person today.

4. Write down the thoughts and actions which are limiting you from becoming that person.

5. Write down how you will change those thoughs and actions to overcome your limitations. This becomes your plan of action.

5. Work like crazy on your plan. Get up every morning thinking and acting more like that person. If you do, each day, you will be one step closer.

6. Keep working on the plan each day until you are there.

7. Enjoy the person you’ve become!

Follow these five steps without fail. If you do, it will be hard to miss your target. Don’t make it harder than it is. If you can conceive in your mind how you want to be, you can achieve it. My wish for you is for you to do well for youself in 2009!

It’s easy to fall into a daily routine that we don’t particularly like. We end up doing the same thing over and over, day after day. We get up after not getting enough sleep, hurry ourselves and our kids while getting ready for work and school, run out the door to a job which we may or may not enjoy all that much, get through a mundane work day, sit in traffic on the way back home, walk in the door exhausted from our crazy day, make and eat a dinner that probably could be more healthful, turn on the t.v. and watch a show we hope will take our minds off of real life for an hour, go back to bed a bit later than we should only to get up and do it all over again the next day. Weekends seem like mini vacations compared to our hectic weeks. We live for Saturdays and dread Mondays. Are you familiar with this?

We THINK that this is the way it HAS to be. It was the way we grew up. It’s the way all of our friends do it. It’s the way everyone with whom we work does it. But, that’s not true. If you’re not happy with your routine, it doesn’t have to be that way. You can change it. It can be different. It can be better. But, it takes effort. It takes effort to analyze your day to discover what you can cut out to make more quality time with your family. It takes effort to look at how you can use your time at work more effectively so that you’re able to actually get your work done and leave the office on time. It takes effort to get to bed a little earlier so that you get more sleep and feel better the next day. It takes effort to talk to your kids about what’s going on in their lives. It takes effort to find quiet time to renew your mind, listen to your thoughts and pray. It takes effort to tune out the noise and find true voices of value that add to your life experience. After you expend a little effort to begin doing these things, you gain momentum and change comes more naturally. It gets easier. The hardest part about starting something new is just starting. Once you’ve spent a few days trying new things, finding a routine that you like better, examining your life to find what brings you true joy, it becomes something you’ll want to do. It’s a great feeling to experience change for the better. It’s great realizing that life can be different from the same old routine. People are changing every day. They’re finding a new path that takes them where they want to go. I’ve seen it. I’ve done it. It’s fun. And a great way to start your life change is to simply ask this question: What makes a good day for me? Once you answer that, your goal should be to do what you can each day to make that happen. A little effort, a change here and there, some thought, some planning, some action and before you know it, you’ve created a life in which your good days happen more and more. You CAN do it. Just give it a try…

This morning, I’m watching big storms roll through the midwest. There are waves of severe weather affecting areas like St. Louis, Indianapolis and Columbus, Ohio. It’s 5:51 in the morning and there are already three tornado watches that stretch from the midwest to the east coast. Here’s a storm report from the National Weather Service after a storm passed through Rush County, Indiana, during the early moring hours…

SEVERAL HOMES HEAVILY DAMAGED OR DESTROYED AROUND THE TOWN OF MOSCOW. POLICE REPORT UNKNOWN NUMBER OF INJURIES AND NUMEROUS PEOPLE MISSING.

These are the kind of reports we hate to read. Now, people will be left to pick up the pieces and recover from damaging storms. Ask anyone who has been through it, recovering from tornadoes and severe weather is not a fun process…

Here’s a map of the severe weather reports from yesterday (June 3rd)…

Each dot is a report of severe weather. The blue dots are wind reports, green = hail and red = tornadoes (there were 16 reports of twisters yesterday). Needless to say, the weather has been very active…

So, what’s causing all of the active weather in the midwest? The answer – the controlling pattern is imbalanced. The weather is the most severe where the imbalance is the worst. It’s just the way the weather works. The atmosphere naturally wants to be in a state of balance and when it’s not, it tries (sometimes violently) to find a balanced state. Take a look at this video takes from a security camera as a house across the street takes a hit from an EF-5 tornado in Parkersburg, Iowa, last month…

This video shows the atmosphere trying as hard as it can to return to a balanced state. The more imblance, the more turbulence…

Let these scenes be a reminder to you that the storms of life grow larger when you live without balance in your own life. Here’s something else to think about: If you have a spouse and kids, your imbalance doesn’t just affect you, it affects them. When you’re going through a life storm, those around you often feel the fury, too.

So today, take some time and think about your life. How can you work to create more balance and peace? How can you change your schedule to spend more time at home? What can you do to make sure your kids know how much they’re loved? What can you add (or take away) from your diet to make it healthful? What can you do today to make your life better tomorrow? If you feel stessed, out of control and highly imbalanced, please don’t wait until your storm of life is big enough to blow apart your home. Work on creating balance now. Sometimes, it takes less energy than you think to make your life much better…